Round Table Pizza scrap dough

[elsegundo]

In earlier posts I described how RT uses a 24.25 lbs of premix of: flour, salt, Crisco, sugar, nonfat dry milk, and yeast all added to 11 lbs of water.  In discussion with one of the managers, he described that they use 50% scrap dough from the previous day.

For those who make bread, this should sound familiar, sometimes referred to as "old-dough" method.  It imparts flavor and as the scrap dough was already sheeted and laminated, this ensures a good start on the sheeting process.


For more info look at reply #5 by ThatOneGuy


Hope this helps

[Mad_Ernie]

elsegundo:

I have been a fan of Round Table pizza ever since I got my first taste in the spring of 1996.  I don't live anywhere near an RT (I'm a Midwest guy), but whenever I am out on the West Coast, I make a special effort to get my RT pizza fix.   

I have read the previous extensive posts on everyone's contribution to develop a home-made RT pizza, including yours, and I just want to say "THANKS"

I've tried a couple attempts so far.  The first turned out lousy; the second one better but still not on target.  I think the pasta sheeter really does help.

Anyway, many thanks to you, Peter, Lydia, ThatOneGuy, and everyone else who has helped to keep the process alive for making a better clone of a Round Table Pizza.  I, for one, am most appreciative.

-ME

[ELittle]

I worked for round table for a few years, and you're spot on with your information. I have made the "snake" of 50% fresh and 50% scrap dough hundreds of times using the giant sheeter machine and its kinda fun when the sheet of dough gets to be about 100 feet long. Only their thin crust uses a 50/50 mix of scrap/fresh dough, the pan style uses 100% fresh dough. I'm also a fan of their pizza, I like it very much.

[Pete-zza]

Evan,

I'm not sure that you are aware of the effort that several members have put into trying to reverse engineer and clone an RT pizza, as exemplified by this thread: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1911.0.html. A related thread is this one: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1913.msg16921.html#msg16921. Since you worked at RT, you might wish to review the above threads and offer any commentary that you think might help move the effort forward.

Peter

[elsegundo]

ELittle is correct about the pan style pizza.  It is fresh dough.  It is also bland. I'm not sure if they use the same premix.

For those who are using an Atlas pasta roller, I use 1-2-4 setting, business letter fold repeat. Dust as necessary. Sometimes repeat again. I use 4 ounces (for a personal size) of DKM style recipe with an ounce more water.  This mimics the Round Table technique. I'm sure someone can improve on this. Works for me. Of course I'm still experimenting.  Good luck.

[ELittle]

I was a manager at a chain of them for a while, and I will tell you what i remember for the dough process, its been a few years though. And ThatOneGuy seems to have good knowledge of what he was talking about.

First we started off by putting the 24 pound sack of crust mix into the mixer like stated by ThatOneGuy and mix in 11 pounds of water at 80/85 degrees or so. You put it all in the bowl of the hobart mixer and let it mix for 7 minutes.

Then once it is done we used large food bags, resembling garbage bags, and you put the dough into the bag and get all the air out of it and then tape the end of the bag shut. Then we would put it into the walk in to be used the next day. The next day when you go to take out the dough the garbage bag has fully expanded and is huge with all the gas from the fermenting dough.

The dough we made was never used the same day. If we needed more we would drive to another store to get more, but if it doesn't have the time to proof in the walk-in then it just doesn't turn out right.

At the end of the night, all of the pan and thin pizzas that weren't sold are recycled into scrap dough, usually into 15 pound bags, and put in the walk-in at the end of the night.

The next morning, it was procedure to take a 15 pound block of scrap and roll it out in the sheeter to about a 3 foot by 1 foot slab, then to cut a 15 pound section of fresh dough made the day before and roll it out to the same size. You then put one on top of the other and  sheet it out to about 5 or 6 feet long an 12" wide, then kind of tri-fold it over on itself to create the "Snake". We then rolled that back through the sheeter about 6 or 7 times until the proper thickness was achieved then we used a steel circle with a handle on it to place on the sheeted dough and then cut out the skin with a rounded knife. They were stacked 10 to a tray on a metal pizza pan and seperated with wax paper. They were immediately put back into the walk-in after being cut. This is the process for the thin pizzas.

For the thick pizzas, we would cut off a chunk of dough from the fresh dough made the day before, and weigh it on a scale until the proper weight was achieved. Then you shape it into a ball and put it through the sheeter on one setting, I think it was 7, and it comes out as an oval, then we put it back through, on setting 3 or 3.5, and it would come out as a round pan dough. We stacked them 5 high on plastic pizza trays separated with wax paper and left them out at room temp for 45 minutes to rise again, then put them back into the walk-in.

Generally, every thin or pan pizza has to be used that day. If it isnt, we would turn it into scrap to be used the next day to make more thin pizzas. If we had too much scrap it would just get thrown out.

Our dockers had metal pins also and were 5" or so. We did have some small screens and large screens for the thin crust pizzas, and the pan pizzas used the different pans with the lip on them and the pan pizza pans were sprayed with vegetable oil spray before placing the dough in them. Our screens were similar to what ThatOneGuy described, with larger holes that were somewhat spread out. The same was true for both the thin screens and the pan trays.

But as far as the oven brand, I'm not sure. I have cleaned them a bunch of times though. They have "fingers" inside, 8 if i remember correctly, and they have to be removed along with the conveyor and cleaned regularly, which is a pain. I think it took about 8 minutes or so to cook it at approx 580 degrees.

If there is anything else I can comment on, just ask.

-Evan

[Pete-zza]

Evan,

As a former Round Table employee, have you ever attempted to replicate an RT pizza at home and, if not, was there a reason why you chose not to do so?  Most of our members have had the greatest problem with rolling out the dough to get a layered effect in the finished pizza. Since they don't have professional rolling equipment, they have used either rolling pins or pasta rollers. My last effort at an RT clone pizza was described at Reply 249 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1911.msg51105.html#msg51105. In addition to trying to get a layered effect in the dough/crust, I was also trying to get the baker's percents right. Since I have never had a real RT pizza, I am not sure whether I achieved either. I thought the pizza itself was exceptional, however.

Peter

[ELittle]

When I worked for RT I never tried making a clone of it at home. I was working so many hours (like 70 average a week) and 6 days that the last thing i wanted to do was make pizza at home. Plus I had a charge account so I could just get all the pizzas I wanted to take home.  It wasnt until after I quit and wasnt able to bring home pizza everyday that I began jonsing for it and began making it at home. Its funny now that I think about it, I could have been taking home bags of crust mix but it never even occurred to me.

I think one major fact that would stop me from trying to duplicate the thin style would be the way they roll it out, like you mentioned. The way RT rolls out their dough would be hard to achieve at home. It would take hours of rolling by hand to try to accomplish what the sheeter machine does in minutes. Its very labor intensive and skilled work even with the machine, let alone a rolling pin. To some people it might just look like youre rolling blobs of dough together, but the technique of doing it right and getting the proper thickness is hard. Plus relaxing the sheet of dough before you cut out the skins so they dont turn into ovals after they are cut and stacking the snake 15 layers thick while its coming out of the machine and having to flour each layer while its coming out.... yikes! its like I just had a flashback! 

But yeah, the rolling of the dough would be hard to duplicate without a sheeter. Although the pan style would be easy to duplicate if you could get a recipe for the dough.

[Fingerstyle]

Want consistent rolled thickness?  No problem! Get a big rolling pin and some hefty rubber bands. Build up layers of the rubber bands around the ends of the rolling pin until you get the thickness you want.
  - Vic

[Lydia]

Round Table Fresh Scrap Proceddure Aug. 2012
I was able to catch the skins being cut and caught how the Fresh scrap was processes.
The scraps were set aside uncovered while the worker finished cutting the skins
They were stacked on a solid pizza pan (serving pan) and set on a lower shelf unwrapped without the deli-wrap.
The scraps were placed in a plastic grey bus pan, weighed to 17 lbs, and pressed firmly into the bin to make a somewhat solid mass.
The pressed block of scraps was dumped onto the work bench and pressed thinner. This took a bit of time and strength, two fisted, pushing down with all his weight. It still looked scrappy.
The dough was put through the sheeter one time. (Sheeter wasn’t the typical Sommerset it was an Acme.)
I don’t know the setting, I couldn’t see it, sorry. But it was somewhere about 4 ft. long after sheeting.
You could still see the lines from the scrap pieces even though it technically was smooth. (see pic for reference)
This was folded lengthwise into 3rds, and then it was rolled from the short end into a coil.
Placed in a clear food service bag and labeled with 17 lbs with a marker and taken to the back.

The skins were brought up to the bench and the skins were peeled one from another and deli-wrap squares were placed between each skin and stacked on the pizza pan. (The skins were a bit tacky and didn't release very well.)
(Food service Deli wrap is moisture and grease proof and is cheap, so makes way more sense than using parchment.)
Pizza pan and all were placed into another clear bag and taken to the front.


Cheese amts. have dropped to
Orignal large 11 oz.
Pan 13.5 oz

This pic was borrowed from the net from Peter Piper Pizza, a southern CA, AZ chain.